A South Florida man who served almost 35 years in prison has been acquitted of the robbery he always maintained he did not commit.
A jury convicted Sidney Holmes, 57, based on a botched lineup, a misidentified car, and his criminal record.
Holmes is now a free man after Circuit Judge Edward Merrigan ordered his wrongful conviction for a 1988-armed robbery in Broward County was overturned on Monday, March 13, according to reports.
The Innocence Project of Florida and the Broward State Attorney’s Office’s Conviction Review Unit played a major role in proving his innocence. They presented evidence to persuade a judge to dismiss his 400-year sentence.
In 2019, Holmes approached the Innocence Project to take up his case. After reviewing his file, Seth Miller, the organization’s executive director, reached out to the Broward State Attorney’s Office and spent the next two and a half years working on Holmes’ behalf, according to the Miami Herald.
“When someone’s been in prison for three decades telling everyone ‘I’m innocent,’ ‘I’m innocent,’ — for many of these men and women, no one’s listened to them the entire time,” Miller said.
On June 19, 1988, Holmes was accused of being the getaway driver in the robbery, even though he did not match the description of the driver seen in the car by a witness, reports show
Police pursued the then-23-year-old Holmes because four years prior, he was convicted for his role as the driver in two other armed robberies. Detectives clung to this theory that Holmes was involved, despite his car and the one used for the robbery being different, according to reports.
The investigators also ignored the testimony of six people who located Holmes on the day of the crime, including at the time of the robbery, with his parents.
Officers placed Holmes in a lineup and asked the victim to identify who they believed was the driver. After multiple lineups, the victim finally…
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